Palm Springs pickleball project delayed after bids exceed budget
After receiving 10 bids for the project at Demuth Park, only the third-lowest bid qualified, and it exceeded the allocated budget by approximately $700,000.
The city will need to rebid the $6.1 million Demuth Park pickleball court project after all qualified bids came in substantially over budget, potentially delaying the start of construction until later this year, it was announced Monday.
During the Parks and Recreation Commission’s regular monthly meeting, city officials and commissioners revealed that after receiving 10 bids for the project, only the third-lowest bid qualified, and it exceeded the allocated budget by approximately $700,000.
Local reporting and journalism you can count on.
Subscribe to The Palm Springs Post
“Unfortunately, the two lowest bidders weren’t qualified, and so we had to go with the third lowest bidder, which is way over the budget for this project,” said Parks and Recreation Director Nicholas Gonzalez during the meeting. “To ensure that we deliver a really good project based on all of the community feedback, we are recommending that we reject all the bids and start over.”
Gonzalez emphasized that the city cannot move forward with paying an additional $700,000 for the project, noting the city’s responsibility to be “stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
The next step will be for the city’s engineering division to formally reject the bids at a May 28 Palm Springs City Council meeting. The city would then need to repost the bidding process on June 1, allowing vendors 30 days to submit new bids.
Due to the City Council’s meeting schedule, including no meetings in August, the project may not go before the Council for approval until September. Once approved, construction is expected to take approximately eight months.
“As soon as we would award a contract at that first or second council meeting in September, we would want to mobilize as quickly as we can,” a city official explained.
The city will next update the project website with the revised timeline and coordinate with the pickleball ad hoc committee to review options.
In the meantime, the Parks and Recreation Department is working with College of the Desert to provide temporary pickleball courts, which Gonzalez noted “should come in under projected costs” with expenses primarily due to court renovations. The temporary solution was previously approved at the May 14 City Council meeting.
Despite the setback, officials remain committed to delivering the project as envisioned through community input. They considered but rejected value engineering options such as eliminating security cameras, seating and shade structures, determining that delivering a reduced project “would appear to be disingenuous” considering community expectations.
Author
Related Articles
Palm Springs weighs the pros and cons of an elected mayor as landmark Supreme Court voting rights ruling reshapes legal landscape
The Supreme Court’s dismantling of a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act has injected new uncertainty into Palm Springs’ ongoing discussion about shifting to a directly elected mayor.
City holds first of two public meetings on a new tourism fee that could bring in millions
The money raised would go toward a massive renovation planned for the convention center, but some vacation rental owners say they don’t see the benefit.
Palm Springs composting fines never issued, subcommittee member says
Enforcement gaps in multi-family housing, a possible plastic bottle ban at city events, and a new sustainability badge for short-term rentals were among topics at the monthly Waste Reduction Subcommittee meeting.